Clay Aiken Advocates for Inclusion, UNICEF, Human Rights

Screen cap links to video of Clay Aiken on 'The Joy Behar Show.'

Three Within Five Days

Clay Aiken Champions Causes

Singer Clay Aiken has championed three causes in the past five days at a major event -- children with disabilities (National Inclusion Project Gala) -- and in the national media with pre-Halloween publicity for Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF (Broadway Playbill) and The Joy Behar Show during which he articulately discussed gay/lesbian rights and the epidemic of bullying.

Appropriately, Oct. 20 is Spirit Day, a global event for remembering young adults and teens who recently took their own lives due to bullying. Created by Brittany McMillan and sponsored by GLAAD, Spirit Day is being commemorated both online and off.

Color of the day is purple, and the slogan is "Everyone Rally Together." Don your purple, and support the Human Rights Campaign.

Singer Man definitely gets around. In addition to the video linked above, you can comment on Clay's anti-bullying interview at the Joy Behar website.

Broadway Supports UNICEF Kids' Night

Broadway and "American Idol" veteran Clay Aiken knows how to have fun for a good cause on Halloween.

An Ambassador for UNICEF since 2004, Clay spoke recently about the annual Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF campaign, which is being supported by Playbill and the Broadway League this year as part of Kids' Night on Broadway.

For 60 years, Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF has served as the Original Kids Helping Kids Campaign®. In 1950, children across American were inspired to collect coins for UNICEF to aid children abroad.

Established as one of the longest-running youth volunteerism initiatives in America, with nearly $160 million raised to-date, Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF remains an inspiration to the young (and the young at heart) to further the cause of children everywhere.

Read about Clay's childhood Halloween memories as well as three easy steps for participating in Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF at Broadway Playbill. UNICEF photo of Clay in Uganda by Guillaume Bonn.

NIP Enlists New Pepsi Voters

Last weekend's National Inclusion Project Champions Gala was a huge success, honoring outstanding champions of change, raising funds for the next season's projects, infusing organization supporters with new ideas and enthusiasm.

The NIP, currently at #14, continues the October campaign for a $50,000 grant through the Pepsi Refresh Challenge with renewed strategies. The foundation must remain in the top 10 to secure the funds.

Be sure to register at the National Inclusion Project for a chance to win a new iPad if the charity is successful. You can also cast your Internet votes from this link.

Children participate in Let's ALL Play inclusive programs.
Click to expand photo from Arc of Atlantic camp by the sea.

US residents 13 and older can vote three ways 10 times -- via the Pepsi site, Facebook, as well as mobile phone texts (#102308 to #73774). That's three votes for the National Inclusion Project with the remaining 27 spread among the charity's voting alliances and partners from every eligible member in the household!

Scarlett regularly updates the NIP Voting Widget under the calendar in the Carolina sidebar, and it is simple to make your selections from the four alliance/partner lists there. Be sure to copy/paste a message similar to the one below so the organizations will know the Inclusion Project is supporting their cause:

National Inclusion Project just voted for you. http://www.refresheverything.com/nationalinclusionproject. Text 102308.

Teacher Finally Learns To Text

If you are from this grandmother's generation, you may need texting instructions printed on the clickable flyer below. If your cellphone is as ancient as mine, you need a teen-aged piano student like Joseph, who spent part of his lesson Tuesday as the instructing his teacher.

Double clickable flyer
Expand, print, distribute,
send as email attachment!

A daily NIP/partner voter through Facebook and Pepsi throughout September and October, I finally sent my first text vote Tuesday afternoon, thanks to my eighth grade piano student who configured my out-of-date cellphone. After successfully texting a vote for inclusion, he retraced his steps while his "teacher" took very good notes.

Before our role reversal, I had to promise to call AT&T about an upgrade. Longtime readers of the Carolina blog will remember Joseph as a featured student composer in the 8/28 entry.

Earlier Tuesday, my daughter had tried to no avail to walk me through texting via a long distance phone call 800 miles away. When my final student was a few minutes late, I followed my "teacher's" instructions and sent my offspring a simple "hello" text, figuring she would truly be shocked. She was indeed!

A makeup for Tuesday's piano-turned-text lesson is in the works!

Anyone who has voted on the Pepsi site knows that at busy times of the day, it simply has to work through certain cycles. Take a tip from Margaret5828 and put in your text votes during Pepsi's lag times.

Among the topics discussed at the Gala were successful strategies other charities are employing to engage large numbers of daily Pepsi Refresh voters. Print copies of the texting flyer, and hand them out at football games, shopping centers, club/faculty meetings, anywhere you can get people to vote daily for the NIP.

The clickable flyer below contains text numbers for the National Inclusion Project' and the charity's voting alliances.

Double clickable flyer
Enlarge, print, distribute,
Send as email attachment!

Let's enlist an army of new voters and win the $50,000 grant for the National Inclusion Project this month. Have a wonderful, productive week, Clay Nation!

Caro